2013 Crimson Flower/ Omari's Sister Retrospective

2013 was a tremendous year at Crimson Flower.  Thank you to everyone who volunteered, purchased stuff from our store, and participated in our community! Let's get straight to the data!

New Series Begun in 2013

• "Kyuuketsuki no Uruwashiki Kekkon" ("Lovely Vampire Weddings")
• "Kanojo ni Naru Hi"
• "Kanojo ni Naru Hi -- Another"
• "Many"
• "Nanatsu no Kururi"
• "Ao no Souyoku" ("A Pair of Blue Wings")
• "Magical Change"
• "Baraou no Souretsu"
• "Kisu ni Renzoku"
• "Lip Smoke"
• "LLLL"
• "Haikyo Shoujo"
• "Kerberos in the Silver Rain"

Series we Finished in 2013

• "Many"
• "Kyuuketsuki no Uruwashiki Kekkon" ("Lovely Vampire Weddings")
• "Kanojo ni Naru Hi"
• "Kemono Kingdom -- Zoo"
• "Furou Kyoudai"
• "LLLL"
•  "Hakamori Majo Bianca"
• "Haikyo Shoujo"
• "Lily"
• "Fushigi no Maria"
• "Boku no Hitsugi de Bansan o"
• "Detarame Mousouryoku Opera"

Top 10 Releases of 2013

1. "Kanojo ni Naru Hi" Chp 1
2. "Lovely Vampire Weddings" Story 1
3. "Lip Smoke" Chp 1
4. "Lovely Vampire Weddings" Story 2
5. "Eikyuu Shoujo"
6. "Lovely Vampire Weddings" Story 3
7. "Mayonaka ni Binetsu"
8. "Netsugen wa Koko"
9. "Magnolia" Chp 33
10. "Piano Lessons for a Adult"

(Looks like 2013 was the year of the oneshot for us.)

Top 10 Visiting Countries

1. US
2. Canada
3. France
4. Germany
5. Australia
6. Indonesia
7. Philippines
8. Malaysia
9. Italy
10. Spain

My Favorite Unlicense Shoujo and Josei Manga of 2013

This seems like a pointless list for me to make because most of the unlicensed manga I love I make into Crimson Flower projects. So I thought I'd talk about some of those and a few titles that are on my radar. I'm limiting this list to shoujo and josei since the only non-shoujo/josei title I bought was "Kerberos in the Silver Rain". All right, so lets get on with it!

Favorite New Series/Oneshot Compilation of 2013

1. "Baraou no Souretsu" by Aya Kanno
2. "Kanojo ni Naru Hi" by Akane Ogura
3. "Haikyo Shoujo" by Tsukiji Nao
4. "Lip Smoke" by Mai Nishikata
5. "Hanaibara" by Mio Kawahara (currently being worked on for CF) 
6. "Kanojo ni Naru Hi -- Another" by Akane Ogura
7. "Boku no Hitsugi de Bansan o" by Nari Kusakawa
8. "Kisu ni Renzoku" by Yuu Toyota
9. "Honjitsu, Akane Hiyori" -- Today's Weather is Akane by Yui Sakuraba (planned for CF in 2014)
10. "Jinrou Chronicle" by Lay Mutsuki

Notes:

"Hanaibara" -- An illustrator, Hassuku Yanase,  moves into a country house his eccentric grandfather left to him.  Living in the house are an erotic fiction writer, Soyogo Muro,  and his younger sister, Kanako Muro, who he uses as his model for his works.  Yanase decides to be the illustrator for Soyogo's latest work. (Okay, technically this is seinen since it ran in Avarus).

"Today's Weather is Akane" -- Akane promises to marry Shu when he returns from abroad. Akane is expected to continue on her father's traditional Japanese restaurant, but when Shu returns, he wants to open a Western style restaurant instead.  Meanwhile, Akane's father bought Natsuhiko, who is ALWAYS irritable, into the family business for the obvious reason... heh-heh... It's a typical historical shoujo love triangle, but it's very done well while keeping the drama to a minimum. This is a wonderful easygoing short series that I hope CF will bring to you all in 2014.

Honorable Mentions:

• "Anniversary" bu Yu Uemori
• "Bread and Butter" by Hinako Ashihara
• "Princess Ledahlia" by You Higuri

Favorite Oneshots of 2013 (Translated this year)

1. "Boushi no Ue no Oka" by Nao Tsukiji
2. "Puzzle" by Morie Satoshi
3. "Tosagare Renren" by Nari Kusakawa
4. "Blushing Boy MacArthur" by Lammy Uchimiya
5. "Kutsunashihime" by Akanatsu

The most fun project I worked on this year -- "Lovely Vampire Weddings". The artwork was too lovely and the stories were infectiously sweet.

I know many of your have the chance to read a lot more unlicensed titles that I did, so please share some of the glorious finds on you favorite list.

My Favorite Licensed Manga of 2013

Here's the list the licensed manga from this year I read and I liked the most.  This isn't a best manga list. I feel in no way capable of making those kinds of judgements, nor do I read much of anything that experts would consider "best".  Actually, I was hard pressed to name any new licensed manga I really liked this year, so these are the works I sorta enjoyed, but I can't say I'm cheerleading for any of these series.  The ongoing and other manga I read, though, I loved.

I decided to separate licensed manga from unlicensed manga, so I'll start with licensed stuff first.  The lists are in alphabetical particular order.

My favorite new manga of 2013

• "Another" by Yukito Ayatsuji and Hiro Kiyohara
• "Ayako" (the super spy half of story) by Osamu Tezuka
• "Heart of Thomas" by Moto Hagio
• "Inu x Boku SS" by Coco Fujiwara
• "Utsubora" - The Story of a Novelist by Asumiko Nakamura
• "Vinland Saga"by Makoto Yukimura (Hubby's pick)

Disappointing new manga of 2013

• "Alice in the Country of Clover: Cheshire Cat Waltz" by QuinRose and Mamenosuke Fujimaru
• "Are you Alice" by Ikumi Katagiri and Ai Ninomiya
• "Crimson Empire"by QuinRose and Hazuki Futaba
• "Knights of Sidonia" by Tsutomu Nihei
• "Midnight Secretary" by Tomu Ohmi
• "Pink" by Kyoko Ozaki
• "Sweet Rein" by Sakura Tsukuba"
• "Wolfmund" by Mitushisa Kuji

 Favorite ongoing and other manga I read in 2013

• "Blank Slate" by Aya Kanno 
• "Bride's Story" by Kaoru Mori
• "Olympos" by Aki
• "Skip Beat" by Yoshiki Nakamura
• "The Betrayal Knows my Name" by Hotaru Odagiri

Series I dropped in 2013

• "Attack on Titan" by Hajime Isayama
• "Dawn of the Arcana" by Rei Toma
• "Dengeki Daisy" by Kyousuka Motomi 
• "Kamisama Kiss" by Julietta Suzuki
• "Oresama Teacher" by Izumi Tsubaki
• "Vampire Knight" by Hino Matsuri

2013 Shoujo Manga Trends and 2014 predictions

Let's talk about some of the trends we saw in shoujo manga this year! Admittedly my scope is limited since I don't read the major shoujo magazine from Shueisha, Shogukukan, and Kodansha (Margaret, Sho-comi, Cookie, Cheese, Betsucomi, Ciao, Ribbon, The Dessert...etc...). Please feel free to inform about trends I didn't catch in the comments section.  Anyhow, here's what I noticed (in no particular order).

• 2013 was the year of the Wolf-like sadistic boyfriend (Ookami dou-S kareshi).  This is a trend that carried over from 2012. We even did a few oneshots with theme such as "Memoir of a Sadist", "Sakashima", and "Puzzle".   Other's include:
• Do S na Onii-chan to no Atarashii Koi no Hajimekata Oshiete Kudasai! 
• Ookami ni Kuchizuke 
• Fluritz Hakushaku wa Itsumo Gokigen Naname

• Bakeries and Patissiers! There's the latest one I love "Bread & Butter", the newest from Maki Minami -- Komomo Confiserie and countless other oneshots and short series. This is also a trend I noticed in josei.
• Bromances -- There were lots of short series about guys in none BL relationships like: "Danshi Gurashi", "Dansui", and "Ore Ore".
• Age Gap Romances (Oyaji-moe) -- "Ojikoi", "Lip Smoke", and the debut of Oyajism magazine are examples of this trend.
• Desert Themed oneshots and short series -- There were quite a few in the Hakusensha publications in the second half this year.  We'll start releasing some of those in 2014
• Princes -- this is something I saw rising this Fall.  There were a bunch of Prince themed oneshots and short series in the Hakusensha publication, and Prince magazine started a new section of Princess magazine call "Prince" that will appear quarterly.
• Hakusensha has been on a tear this year introducing new shoujo publications that would appeal to women over 20. The new publications are Ane Lala and Bunkei Shoujo.  I've also noticed the content in the Lala Specials (Themed Lalas) and The Hana to Yume are becoming more mature.
• Oneshot furoku! Betsuma was the magazine to get in 2013 if you like oneshots. As part of their anniversary they include Betsuma Two, which included some very inventive oneshots and short series. Asuka and a few of the other shoujo mags also had nice oneshot compilation freebies.
• Long Form oneshots! I can't tell whether this is something that being done more or whether I'm just noticing them more.

2014 Predictions!

• As publishers grope to find create new fads and subgenres, I expect to see more experimental short series and oneshots.

Looking Forward to 2013 at Omari's Sister

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a safe and fun holiday season. I've been taking a short break from OS since finishing "Ojousama no Untenshu." I played and beat Torchlight II and watched some movies with hubby. I recommend "Cabin in the Woods." It was a very clever play on horror movie tropes. "Ted"...well...my husband liked it a lot more than I did. I felt that it was too much of a "man movie" for me. If you can marathon "Family Guy," then you'll love "Ted." Me...I'm sorta a "Family Guy" in the background kind of person. I also cut up a great deal of cardboard for recycling. We had way too much fun with Amazon lightening sales and I gifted myself a crap-ton of manga from Amazon JP, so naturally a bunch of cardboard built up.

Looking forward to 2013, personally, I'll be starting the job hunt again. hopefully this time I will find a job I like at the appropriate skill level. Haha! Being over-qualified is a horrible position to be in. I think I would rather be challenged than bored. When I do get a job, expect the pace of release to slow. I think we will be able to manage ~120-pages/month (Currently we average ~240-page/month).

Okay, now onto 2013 plans for Omari's Sister. The priorities for the first half the year are to finish all series than are done in Japan. We will not be starting any new series until we have completed unfinished series. We also will be doing very few oneshots until we finish these series. We will be working on these series according to the following schedule:

January: "Deterame Mousouryoku Opera"
February: "Fushigi no Maria-kun"
March: "Furou Kyoudai"
April - June: "Ore to Atashi no Kareshi-sama" & "Rex Fabula"
July - Sept: "Kemono Kingdom: Zoo"

On a ongoing basis we will release "Magnolia/Lily" and "Pochamani" monthly. After we finish our 7 unfinished series, we will resume regular releases of "The Ghost Apartment Manager."

We will have some themed oneshot parties:

February: Vampire Weddings
June: OS Anniversary oneshot blowout -- Nao Tsukiji, Mai Nishikata, Kaoru Ichinose, Hana Kimi Tributes, and more!
October: Spooky -- Aka Lala & Shiro Lala 2012
Other months will be TBD

I'm still evaluating new series to start in 2013. I'll announce the new series in June. If we finish up the unfinished series early, we will start new series then. For hints about what I'm looking at, please take a look at the Omari's Sister Tumblr page. I am looking strictly at short series.

As usual, thank to our readers for your continued support and thanks to all the Omari's Sister volunteers for your hardwork. Let's make 2013 another great year!